Maybe a beat reporter could do a way better job if there was a "live" social network connected to the beat, made up of people who know the territory the beat covers, and want the reporting on that beat to be better. See what happens when 13 pro reporters with real beats give that idea a go ... blah blah blah pro-am journalism, distributed reporting, collaborative information gathering, blog-style reportage.

The smart money is to publicly praise the pro-am journalists, but hedge your career bets on the pro-pros. At the rate New York Times
contributors are taking over Facebook
, this latest hybrid journalism is going to be known as just journalism by March.